Ellen Pao asked for a $10 million payment from Kleiner Perkins as the cost of 'not fixing problems'

Ellen Pao asked for a $10 million separation payment from Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm she's
suing for gender discrimination, "so they saw
it would be painful to not fix problems," according
to a Recode
liveblog of her testimony today.

The news came up as Pao testified for the second day
in her
gender discrimination lawsuit against the firm, in a case
that continues to air plenty of Silicon Valley's dirty laundry.
She is seeking $16 million.

Here's how it went, according
to her testimony: Back in late 2011, KPCB partner John Doerr
asked Pao and coworker Trae Vassallo to come up with ways to
improve the firm's treatment of women. They suggested a bunch of
things, including more involvement by female partners in the
interview process, tighter mentorships, and the like. Doerr, Pao
says, was "noncommittal."

So Pao took it a step further on January 4, 2012, by writing a
more formal memo to Doerr, partner Ted Schlein, Kleiner Perkins'
then-Chief Operating Officer Eric Keller, and the firm's outside
counsel, claiming that partner Ajit Nazre "bullied and
deceived [her] into a brief relationship," and that she had been
purposely excluded from and alienated by many of the firm's
partners — and that while the situation with Nazre was awful, he
was by no means the only bad apple.

"This is an uncomfortable and difficult situation,
and I am at a loss as to how to address it going forward. I know
that my career has been badly damaged by our firm’s failure to
have properly addressed these matters in the past, and I fear it
will be further damaged or destroyed by the current
circumstances. I also believe strongly that two or three people
leaving will not significantly change this element of our firm,"
Pao's memo read in part.

The memo also indicated a willingness to discuss matters
further and work on improving the treatment of women at the
firm.

Keller's response was to launch another investigation. It
would be conducted by Steve Hirschfeld, the same
outside lawyer who investigated Vassallo's complaints against
Nazre earlier.

After an interview with Hirschfeld, Pao didn't believe it
would change anything. She said as much in another email, again
indicating that she wanted to work with the firm to improve
matters. Keller asked for “a separation, my departure
and a payment," Pao says.

Which led to Pao asking for a $10 million payment, which
she believed was a big enough number to make the firm take notice
that it would be costly not to fix problems.

Hirschfeld's investigation concluded there was no
systematic gender discrimination, and Pao stayed at her job for a
little while longer, but eventually departed and filed this
lawsuit in 2012.